1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an article storage/dispensing device for a specific type of vending machine, such as a so-called see-through vending machine allowing articles actually contained therein to be viewed from a front of the machine, which stores lots of articles in horizontal rows, and dispenses the articles from a terminal position at one end or the other of each row for vending.
2. Prior Art
The present assignee proposed this kind of article storage/dispensing device e.g. in Japanese Patent Application No. 9-69210. The article storage/dispensing device is comprised of lots of shelves arranged one above another and secured to a body of a vending machine, a plurality of article racks placed on the respective shelves, and an elevator arranged at a location forward of the article racks such that it can move upward and downward for receiving an article from any of the article racks. The article racks each have an article passage formed therein for storing lots of articles in a manner horizontally placed one behind another, and an article-dispensing mechanism for dispensing an article from the article passage. The article-dispensing mechanism is comprised of a gate arranged in the vicinity of a dispensing opening (rack end opening) of the article passage, for opening/closing the dispensing opening through rotation thereof, and a pusher constantly urging the articles toward the dispensing opening by an urging force thereof.
Each of the article racks is provided with a drive mechanism, which is mounted on a portion of the machine body behind the article rack, for driving the gate for rotation. The drive mechanism is comprised of a motor, a gear mechanism for transmitting torque of the motor to the gate, and a plurality of limit switches for detecting an angle of rotation of the gate caused by rotation of the motor. The drive mechanism is operated to drive the motor in response to signals from the plurality of limit switches, whereby the gate is opened and closed.
In the article storage/dispensing device constructed as above, when the vending machine is in a standby state ready for vending articles, each gate is in its home position for holding a horizontal row of articles between the pusher and itself. During vending operation of the machine, first, the elevator moves to a predetermined position in the vicinity of the dispensing opening from which an article is to be dispensed, and stops thereat. Then, the drive mechanism is started to cause the gate to rotate from its home position through a predetermined angle to thereby open the dispensing opening. As a result, the horizontal row of articles in the article passage is advanced by the urging force of the pusher until a foremost one of the articles alone is dispensed forward from the dispensing opening. The dispensed article is received by the elevator and carried to a take-out opening located below the dispensing opening. After the article is dispensed, the motor of the drive mechanism performs reverse rotation, thereby causing the gate to rotate in a reverse direction to return to its home position. Thus, one vending cycle is completed.
According to the conventional article storage/ dispensing device described above, since each article rack needs a drive mechanism of its own, component parts and elements for use in the drive mechanism, such as a motor, a plurality of limit switches, cables connecting between the motor and the limit switches, are required to be provided according to the number of article racks arranged in the machine body. These component parts and elements are expensive, so that cost thereof is increased. At the same time, it is required to carry out wiring for connecting by cables between a motor and limit switches on a rack-by-rack basis, which increases assembly costs, resulting in an increase in manufacturing costs.
Further, in the conventional article storage/dispensing device, a horizontal row of articles within each article passage is pushed forward by a corresponding pusher for vending, so that the urging force of each pusher is set such that it exceeds a frictional force occurring between the bottom of a corresponding article passage and a maximum number of articles storable in the article passage. When the machine is in the standby state, a large urging force set as above constantly acts on articles in each article passage. As a result, if articles are contained in respective containers made of a soft material, they can be deformed or broken, which hinders the articles from being dispensed smoothly. Further, if articles stored in an article passage have a shape, such as one having a decreasing diameter toward the top or toward the bottom thereof, on which the urging force of the pusher cannot act evenly, the row of articles tend to get out of order when a foremost one of the articles is dispensed from the article passage. As a result, some or all of the articles can fall down one upon another or get caught by wells of the passage, which hinders smooth article dispensation.